Contents

!HERO is a rock opera modernizing Jesus's last two years of life, as described in the Bible. The story takes place in New York City, in Brooklyn, the world government in this near-future dystopic Earth is centered under the International Confederation of Nations (ICON). Under the iron fist of I.C.O.N., nearly all religion in the world has been wiped out, except for small occult and mystic sects. Only one synagogue in Brooklyn exists. Currently, New York City is a police-occupied warzone between ethnic gangs and small, isolated revolutionary groups fighting I.C.O.N. Of all the ancient world religions, only Judaism survives and flourishes, at least, as much as it can.

In Bethlehem, PA, a child named Jesus, but referred to as HERO, is born and forced to flee with his family to the small Jewish section of Brooklyn. Jesus grows up and begins to preach and teach the principles of Christianity to the people of New York City, teaching people to love their enemies and care for each other. I.C.O.N. realizes HERO is a threat, and the Chief of police Devlin (a derivative of the Devil or Satan), with the help of chief Rabbi Kai (Caiaphas), conspire to end HERO's revolutionary teachings.[1]

The Opera is narrated by "Agent Hunter", a former I.C.O.N. agent who met HERO and was soon thrown into prison for joining him against I.C.O.N. The opera also features Petrov (Peter), Maggie (Mary Magdalene), and Jude (Judas Iscariot) the latter who conspires with Kai and Devlin to betray HERO. The storyline progresses through several stories about Jesus' miracles and sermons, using references from the Bible's four gospels, continues through Jesus' execution, at the hands of I.C.O.N's angry mob, and eventually ending with his resurrection.[2][3]

Aryrakis, Andy (Jan 2004). "Standing Room Only: Star Plaza Theatre, Merrillville, IN"(PDF). CCM Magazine. Vol. 26 no. 7. Nashville, TN: James R Cumbee. p. 60. Archived from the original(PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved Feb 14, 2016. Combining rap, rock, pop, dance and Broadway-styled tunes, “!Hero” featured a slew of street-smart biblical characters interacting with tastefulness, tactfulness and seeker-friendly sensitivity in modern-day New York City."..."Even more gripping than Tait’s representation of the crucifixion on a corner street sign was the resurrection scene, where he greeted the disciples (or hip, street friends in this context) with victorious, sin-conquering glory. It was an epic climax capable of inducing chills within believers and a moment that could possibly even soften the hardest of hearts.

1.
Gospel
–
A gospel is an account describing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity places a value on the four canonical gospels, which it considers to be revelations from God. This position however, requires a view of Biblical inerrancy. The word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings, the gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and of redemption through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, the central Christian message. The Greek word euangelion is also the source of the terms evangelist, the authors of the four canonical Christian gospels are known as the Four Evangelists. Paul the Apostle used the term εὐαγγέλιον when he reminded the people of the church at Corinth of the gospel I preached to you, the earliest extant use of gospel to denote a particular genre of literature dates to the 2nd century. Justin Martyr in the Apology wrote of. the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, more generally, gospels compose a genre of early Christian writings. Gospels that did not become canonical also circulated in Early Christianity, many, such as the work known today as Gospel of Thomas, lack the narrative framework typical of a gospel. Scholars hold a wide spectrum of views on the origins and composition of the gospels, for example, the vast majority of material in Mark is also present in either Luke or Matthew or both, suggesting that Mark was a source for Matthew and Luke. He writes that the four gospels were probably all written by the end of the first century. But they did not yet at that time have a consistent narrative, in 170 Tatian sought to find a solution by composing a single narrative out of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, with some additional oral material. Richies concludes that the gospel passages themselves can be unclear, and some of the messages within are straightforwardly ambiguous, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are considered synoptic gospels on the basis of many similarities between them that are not shared by the Gospel of John. Synoptic means here that they can be seen or read together, the fourth gospel, the Gospel of John, presents a very different picture of Jesus and his ministry from the synoptics. Of the many gospels written in antiquity, only four came to be accepted as part of the New Testament. An insistence upon there being a canon of four gospels, and no others, was a theme of Irenaeus of Lyons. Irenaeus was ultimately successful in declaring that the four gospels collectively and he also supported reading each gospel in light of the others. This canon, which corresponds to the modern Catholic canon, was used in the Vulgate, Gospel of Matthew Gospel of John Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark This order is found in the following manuscripts, Bezae, Monacensis, Washingtonianus, Tischendorfianus IV, Uncial 0234. Although there is no set order of the four gospels in patristic lists or discussions, moody Smith suggests that the standard order of Matthew-Mark-Luke-John projects a kind of intention that can scarcely be ignored

2.
Christian rock
–
Christian rock is a form of rock music that promotes Jesus and is typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals and bands whose members focus the lyrics on matters of Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands, many bands who perform Christian rock have ties to the contemporary Christian music labels, media outlets, and festivals, while other bands are independent. In 1952 Archibald Davison, a Harvard professor, summed up the sound of traditional Christian music, based upon Archibald Davisons statement it is easy to see how different these two genres of music are. Religious people in regions of the United States did not want their children exposed to music with unruly, impassioned vocals, loud guitar riffs and jarring. Rock and roll differed from the norm, and thus it was seen as a threat, often the music was overtly sexual in nature, as in the case of Elvis Presley, who became controversial and massively popular partly for his suggestive stage antics and dancing. However, Elvis was a person who even released a gospel album. Individual Christians may have listened to or even performed rock music in many cases and he Touched Me was a 1972 gospel music album by Elvis Presley which sold over 1 million copies in the US alone and earned Presley his second of three Grammy Awards. Not counting compilations, it was his third and final album devoted exclusively to gospel music, the song He Touched Me was written in 1963 by Bill Gaither, an American singer and songwriter of southern gospel and Contemporary Christian music. In the 1960s, rock music developed artistically, attained popularity and became associated with the radical counterculture. This further increased the Christian opposition to rock music, moreover, many saw the music as promoting a lifestyle of promiscuous sex, drugs and rock and roll, also reflected in the behavior of many rock stars. However, there was growing recognition of the musical and ideological potential of rock. One of his songs, Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music, summarized his attitude and his quest to pioneer Christian rock music. Another Christian rock pioneer, Randy Stonehill, released his first album in 1971, in the most common pressing of the album, side one is entirely a live performance. Another early Christian rock album was Mylon by Mylon LeFevre, son of members of the gospel group The LeFevres. He recorded the album with members of Classics IV and released it through Cotillion Records in 1970, petra and Resurrection Band, two of the bands who brought harder rock into the early CCM community, had their origins in the early to mid-1970s. They reached their height in popularity in the late eighties alongside other Christian-identifying hard rock such as Stryper. The latter had played on MTV, one being To Hell with the Devil. Christian rock has proved successful in the UK and Europe, although such artists as Bryn Haworth have found commercial success by combining blues

3.
Jesus
–
In Christology, the Person of Christ refers to the study of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they co-exist within one person. There is no discussion in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of the Person of Christ as both divine and human. Hence, since the days of Christianity theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures. In the period following the Apostolic Age, specific beliefs such as Arianism and Docetism were criticized. On the other end of the spectrum, Docetism argued that Jesus physical body was an illusion, docetic teachings were attacked by St. Ignatius of Antioch and were eventually abandoned by proto-orthodox Christians. However, after the First Council of Nicaea in 325 the Logos, historically in the Alexandrian school of christology, Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos paradoxically humanized in history, a divine Person who became enfleshed, uniting himself to the human nature. The views of these schools can be summarized as follows, Alexandria, Antioch, Logos assumes a specific human being The First Council of Ephesus in 431 debated a number of views regarding the Person of Christ. At the same gathering the council debated the doctrines of monophysitism or miaphysitism. The council rejected Nestorianism and adopted the term hypostatic union, referring to divine, the language used in the 431 declaration was further refined at the 451 Council of Chalcedon. However, the Chalcedon creed was not accepted by all Christians, because Saint Augustine died in 430 he did not participate in the Council of Ephesus in 431 or Chalcedon in 451, but his ideas had some impact on both councils. On the other hand, the major theological figure of the Middle Ages. The Third Council of Constantinople in 680 held that both divine and human wills exist in Jesus, with the divine will having precedence, leading and guiding the human will. John Calvin maintained that there was no element in the Person of Christ which could be separated from the person of The Word. Calvin also emphasized the importance of the Work of Christ in any attempt at understanding the Person of Christ, the study of the Person of Christ continued into the 20th century, with modern theologians such as Karl Rahner and Hans von Balthasar. Balthasar argued that the union of the human and divine natures of Christ was achieved not by the absorption of human attributes, thus in his view the divine nature of Christ was not affected by the human attributes and remained forever divine

4.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
–
Bethlehem is a city in Lehigh and Northampton counties in the Lehigh Valley region of the eastern portion of the U. S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 74,982, making it the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Reading. Of this,55,639 were in Northampton County, and 19,343 were in Lehigh County, Bethlehem lies in the center of the Lehigh Valley, a region of 731 square miles that is home to more than 800,000 people. Smaller than Allentown but larger than Easton, Bethlehem is the Lehigh Valleys second most populous city, in turn, this metropolitan area comprises Pennsylvanias third-largest metropolitan area and the states largest and most populous contribution to the greater New York City metropolitan area. There are four sections of the city, central Bethlehem, the south side, the east side. Each of these sections blossomed at different times in the citys development, ZIP codes that use the address Bethlehem totaled 116,000 in population in the year 2000. These ZIP codes include Bethlehem Township and Hanover Township, the Norfolk Southern Railways Lehigh Line, runs through Bethlehem heading east to Easton, Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg, New Jersey across the Delaware River. The Norfolk Southern Railways Reading Line runs through Bethlehem heading west to Allentown, in July 2006, Money magazine placed Bethlehem as number 88 on its Top 100 Best Places to Live. The areas along the Delaware River and its tributaries in eastern Pennsylvania were long inhabited by peoples of various cultures. By the time of European contact, these areas were the historic territory of the Algonquian-speaking Lenape Nation and they traded with the Dutch and then English colonists in the mid-Atlantic area. They came to set up missionary communities among the Native Americans and they named the settlement after the Biblical town Bethlehem of Judea, the birthplace of Jesus. Count Zinzendorf said, Brothers, how more fittingly could we call our new home than to name it in honor of the spot where the event we now commemorate took place and we will call this place Bethlehem. And so was Bethlehem named after the birthplace of the Man of Peace, originally it was a typical Moravian Settlement Congregation, where the Church owned all the property. Until the 1850s, only members of the Moravian Church were permitted to land plots in Bethlehem. The historic Brethrens House, Sisters House, Widows House and Gemeinhaus with the Old Chapel are remnants of this period of communal living, the Moravians ministered to regional Lenape Native Americans through their mission in the area, as well as further east in the New York colony. In the historic Bethlehem Gods Acre cemetery, converted Lenape lie buried alongside the Moravians, in 1762, Bethlehem built the first water-works in America to pump water for public use. While George Washington and his troops stayed in Valley Forge, Washington stored his personal effects at the farm of James Burnside in Bethlehem – as of 1998 a historical museum, the prosperous village was incorporated into a free borough in the County of Northampton in 1845. After the Unity Synod of 1848, Bethlehem became the headquarters of the Northern Province of the Moravian Church in North America

5.
Novel
–
A novel is any relatively long piece of written narrative fiction, normally in prose, and typically published as a book. The genre has also described as possessing, a continuous. This view sees the novels origins in Classical Greece and Rome, medieval, early modern romance, the latter, an Italian word used to describe short stories, supplied the present generic English term in the 18th century. The romance is a closely related long prose narrative, Romance, as defined here, should not be confused with the genre fiction love romance or romance novel. Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel, a novel is le roman, der Roman, il romanzo, a novel is a long, fictional narrative which describes intimate human experiences. Most European languages use the word romance for extended narratives, fictionality is most commonly cited as distinguishing novels from historiography. However this can be a problematic criterion, historians would also invent and compose speeches for didactic purposes. Novels can, on the hand, depict the social, political and personal realities of a place and period with clarity. Even in the 19th century, fictional narratives in verse, such as Lord Byrons Don Juan, Alexander Pushkins Yevgeniy Onegin, vikram Seths The Golden Gate, composed of 590 Onegin stanzas, is a more recent example of the verse novel. Both in 12th-century Japan and 15th-century Europe, prose fiction created intimate reading situations, on the other hand, verse epics, including the Odyssey and Aeneid, had been recited to a select audiences, though this was a more intimate experience than the performance of plays in theaters. A new world of Individualistic fashion, personal views, intimate feelings, secret anxieties, conduct and gallantry spread with novels, the novel is today the longest genre of narrative prose fiction, followed by the novella, short story, and flash fiction. However, in the 17th century critics saw the romance as of epic length, the length of a novel can still be important because most literary awards use length as a criterion in the ranking system. Urbanization and the spread of printed books in Song Dynasty China led to the evolution of oral storytelling into consciously fictional novels by the Ming dynasty, parallel European developments did not occur for centuries, and awaited the time when the availability of paper allowed for similar opportunities. By contrast, Ibn Tufails Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and Ibn al-Nafis Theologus Autodidactus are works of didactic philosophy, in this sense, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan would be considered an early example of a philosophical novel, while Theologus Autodidactus would be considered an early theological novel. Epic poetry exhibits some similarities with the novel, and the Western tradition of the novel back into the field of verse epics. Then at the beginning of the 18th century, French prose translations brought Homers works to a wider public, longus is the author of the famous Greek novel, Daphnis and Chloe. Romance or chivalric romance is a type of narrative in prose or verse popular in the circles of High Medieval. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love

6.
Comic book
–
A comic book or comicbook, also called comic magazine or simply comic, is a publication that consists of comic art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by brief descriptive prose and written narrative, although comics has some origins in 18th century Japan and 1830s Europe, comic books were first popularized in the United States during the 1930s. Comic books are reliant on their organization and appearance, authors largely focus on the frame of the page, size, orientation, and panel positions. These characteristic aspects of books are necessary in conveying the content. The key elements of comic books include panels, balloons, text, balloons are usually convex spatial containers of information that are related to a character using a tail element. The tail has an origin, path, tip, and pointed direction, there are many technological formulas used to create comic books, including directions, axes, data, and metrics. Following these key formatting procedures is the writing, drawing, Comics as a print medium have existed in America since the printing of The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck in 1842 in hardcover, making it the first known American prototype comic book. The introduction of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shusters Superman in 1938 turned comic books into a major industry, the Golden Age originated the archetype of the superhero. Historians generally divide the timeline of the American comic book into eras, the Golden Age of Comic Books began with the introduction of Superman in 1938, spurring a period of high sales. The Silver Age of comic books is considered to date from the first successful revival of the then-dormant superhero form. The demarcation between the Silver Age and the era, the Bronze Age of Comic Books, is less well-defined. The Modern Age of Comic Books runs from the mid-1980s to the present day, in response to attention from the government and from the media, the U. S. comic book industry set up the Comics Magazine Association of America. The CMAA instilled the Comics Code Authority in 1954 and drafted the self-censorship Comics Code that year and it was not until the 1970s that comic books could be published without passing through the inspection of the CMAA. In the early 1970s, a surge of creativity emerged in what known as underground comix. Published and distributed independently of the comics industry, most of such comics reflected the youth counterculture. Underground comics were almost never sold at newsstands, but rather in such youth-oriented outlets as head shops and record stores, frank Stacks The Adventures of Jesus, published under the name Foolbert Sturgeon, has been credited as the first underground comic. The rise of comic book specialty stores in the late 1970s created/paralleled a dedicated market for independent or alternative comics in the U. S, some independent comics continued in the tradition of underground comics. A few represented experimental attempts to bring closer to the status of fine art

7.
Bible
–
The Bible is a collection of sacred texts or scriptures that Jews and Christians consider to be a product of divine inspiration and a record of the relationship between God and humans. Many different authors contributed to the Bible, what is regarded as canonical text differs depending on traditions and groups, a number of Bible canons have evolved, with overlapping and diverging contents. The Christian Old Testament overlaps with the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint, the New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, believed to be mostly Jewish disciples of Christ, written in first-century Koine Greek. These early Christian Greek writings consist of narratives, letters, among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about the contents of the canon, primarily the Apocrypha, a list of works that are regarded with varying levels of respect. Attitudes towards the Bible also differ amongst Christian groups and this concept arose during the Protestant Reformation, and many denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only source of Christian teaching. With estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies, the Bible is widely considered to be the book of all time. It has estimated sales of 100 million copies, and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West. The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin. Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra holy book, while biblia in Greek and it gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe. Latin biblia sacra holy books translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, the word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of paper or scroll and came to be used as the ordinary word for book. It is the diminutive of βύβλος byblos, Egyptian papyrus, possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece, the Greek ta biblia was an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books. Christian use of the term can be traced to c.223 CE, bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer to use the Greek phrase ta biblia to describe both the Old and New Testaments together. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses is based on the sof passuk cantillation mark used by the 10th-century Masoretes to record the verse divisions used in oral traditions. The oldest extant copy of a complete Bible is an early 4th-century parchment book preserved in the Vatican Library, the oldest copy of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic dates from the 10th century CE. The oldest copy of a complete Latin Bible is the Codex Amiatinus and he states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from traditions in the second half of the first century CE. Riches says that, Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, the period of transmission is short, less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Marks Gospel. This means that there was time for oral traditions to assume fixed form

8.
New York City
–
The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange

9.
Brooklyn
–
Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City, with a Census-estimated 2,636,735 residents in 2015. It borders the borough of Queens at the end of Long Island. Today, if New York City dissolved, Brooklyn would rank as the third-most populous city in the U. S. behind Los Angeles, the borough continues, however, to maintain a distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves, Brooklyns official motto, displayed on the Borough seal and flag, is Eendraght Maeckt Maght which translates from early modern Dutch as Unity makes strength. Since 2010, Brooklyn has evolved into a hub of entrepreneurship and high technology startup firms. The history of European settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years, the neighborhood of Marine Park was home to North Americas first tidal mill. It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today, however, the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are in Gabriel Furmans early compilation, what is today Brooklyn left Dutch hands after the final English conquest of New Netherland in 1664, a prelude to the Second Anglo–Dutch War. The English reorganized the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island as Kings County on November 1,1683 and this tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of Brooklyn identity. On August 27,1776 was fought the Battle of Long Island, the first major engagement fought in the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared, and the largest of the entire conflict. British troops forced Continental Army troops under George Washington off the heights near the sites of Green-Wood Cemetery, Prospect Park. The fortified American positions at Brooklyn Heights consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, One result of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 was the evacuation of the British from New York City, celebrated by residents into the 20th century. The New York Navy Yard operated in Wallabout Bay for the entire 19th century, the first center of urbanization sprang up in the Town of Brooklyn, directly across from Lower Manhattan, which saw the incorporation of the Village of Brooklyn in 1817. Reliable steam ferry service across the East River to Fulton Landing converted Brooklyn Heights into a town for Wall Street. Ferry Road to Jamaica Pass became Fulton Street to East New York, Town and Village were combined to form the first, kernel incarnation of the City of Brooklyn in 1834. Industrial deconcentration in mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to the part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities, and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems and it later became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America. The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19,1842, on May 14,1849 the name was shortened to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, on September 5,1938 it was further shortened to Brooklyn Eagle

10.
World government
–
World government is the notion of a common political authority for all of humanity, yielding a global government and a single state that exercises authority over the entire Earth. Such a government could come into existence either through violent and compulsory world domination, or through peaceful, There has never been nor is there currently a worldwide executive, legislature, judiciary, military, or constitution with global jurisdiction. The United Nations is limited to an advisory role. The idea and aspiration of world government is known since the dawn of history, Bronze Age Egyptian Kings aimed to rule All That the Sun Encircles, Mesopotamian Kings All from the Sunrise to the Sunset, and ancient Chinese and Japanese Emperors All under Heaven. These four civilizations developed impressive cultures of Great Unity, or Da Yitong as the Chinese put it, in 113 BC, the Han Dynasty in China erected an Altar of the Great Unity. The Greek Stoic School preached one monarch over all mankind, polybius expressed one Government over the Mediterranean world as the marvelous achievement of Fortune and the main task of Historian is to explain how she did it. The ideal of world government outlived the fall of the Pax Romana for a millennium. What tempests must need toss thee, what treasure be thrown into the sea, what shipwrecks must be endured, so long as thou, like a beast of many heads, thou art sick in either intellect, and sick likewise in thy affection. Thou healest not thy high understanding by argument irrefutable, nor thy lower by the countenance of experience, early father of international law, Spanish philosopher Francisco de Vitoria is considered the founder of global political philosophy. De Vitoria conceived of the res publica totius orbis, or the republic of the whole world, de jure belli ac pacis is a 1625 book in Latin, written by Hugo Grotius and published in Paris, on the legal status of war. It is now regarded as a work in international law. Grotius was a philosopher, theologian, playwright, and poet and he is known for coming up with the idea of having an international law, and is still acknowledged today by the American Society of International Law. Immanuel Kant wrote the essay Perpetual Peace, A Philosophical Sketch, specifically, Kant described his proposed peace program as containing two steps. Has shown itself successively in several States which could make pretensions to such a dominion, whether clearly or not—it may be obscurely—yet has this tendency lain at the root of the undertakings of many States in Modern Times. Although no individual Epoch may have contemplated this purpose, yet is this the spirit which runs through all these individual Epochs, in early 19th century Mormon theology, Joseph Smith taught that a theodemocracy would guide and direct the Kingdom of God on the earth during the end times. On March 11,1844, Smith organized a Council of Fifty and this group of three organizations was expected to rule as a world government just prior to the Millennium. / Till the war-drum throbbd no longer / and the battle-flags were furled / In the Parliament of man, / There the common sense of most shall hold / a fretful realm in awe / And the kindly earth shall slumber / lapt in universal law. The first thinker to anticipate a kind of unity under the American primacy seems to be British politician William Gladstone

11.
Religion
–
Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has considered a source of religious beliefs. There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, about 84% of the worlds population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. With the onset of the modernisation of and the revolution in the western world. The religiously unaffiliated demographic include those who do not identify with any religion, atheists. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs, about 16% of the worlds population is religiously unaffiliated. The study of religion encompasses a variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, Religion is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i. e. re with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders, we hear of the religion of the Golden Fleece, of a knight of the religion of Avys. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as a virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations and it was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged. Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, what is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Some languages have words that can be translated as religion, but they may use them in a different way. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. There is no equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities

12.
Synagogue
–
A synagogue, also spelled synagog, is a Jewish house of prayer. Synagogues have a hall for prayer, and may also have smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall. Some have a room for Torah study, called the beith midrash beis medrash —בית מדרש. Synagogues are consecrated spaces used for the purpose of prayer, Tanakh reading, study and assembly, halakha holds that communal Jewish worship can be carried out wherever ten Jews assemble. Worship can also be carried out alone or with fewer than ten people assembled together, however, halakha considers certain prayers as communal prayers and therefore they may be recited only by a minyan. The synagogue does not replace the long-since destroyed Temple in Jerusalem, israelis use the Hebrew term beyt knesset. Jews of Ashkenazi descent have traditionally used the Yiddish term shul in everyday speech, Sephardi Jews and Romaniote Jews generally use the term kal. Spanish Jews call the synagogue a sinagoga and Portuguese Jews call it an esnoga, persian Jews and some Karaite Jews also use the non-Hebrew term kenesa, which is derived from Aramaic, and some Arab Jews use kenis. Reform and some Conservative Jews use the word temple, the Greek word synagogue is used in English, to cover the preceding possibilities. The all-day Yom Kippur service, in fact, was an event in which the congregation both observed the movements of the kohen gadol as he offered the days sacrifices and prayed for his success. During the Babylonian captivity the Men of the Great Assembly formalized and standardized the language of the Jewish prayers, prior to that people prayed as they saw fit, with each individual praying in his or her own way, and there were no standard prayers that were recited. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leaders at the end of the Second Temple era and this contributed to the continuity of the Jewish people by maintaining a unique identity and a portable way of worship despite the destruction of the Temple, according to many historians. A synagogue dating from between 75 and 50 BCE has been uncovered at a Hasmonean-era winter palace near Jericho, more than a dozen Second Temple era synagogues have been identified by archaeologists. Any Jew or group of Jews can build a synagogue, there is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact, the influence from local religious buildings can often be seen in synagogue arches, domes. Historically, synagogues were built in the architectural style of their time. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall, the styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The surviving synagogues of medieval Spain are embellished with mudéjar plasterwork, the surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest and Prague are typical Gothic structures

13.
Police state
–
Police state is a term denoting a government that exercises power arbitrarily through the power of the police force. Political control may be exerted by means of a police force that operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state. Robert von Mohl, who first introduced the rule of law to German jurisprudence, the Oxford English Dictionary traces the phrase police state back to 1851, when it was used in reference to the use of a national police force to maintain order, in Austria. The German term Polizeistaat came into English usage in the 1930s with reference to governments that had begun to emerge in Europe. Because there are different political perspectives as to what an appropriate balance is between individual freedom and national security, there are no standards defining a police state. This concept can be viewed as a balance or scale, along this spectrum, any law that has the effect of removing liberty is seen as moving towards a police state, while any law that limits government oversight is seen as moving towards a free state. An electronic police state is one in which the government aggressively uses electronic technologies to record, organize, search, the Oprichnina established by Ivan IV within the Tsardom of Russia in 1565 functioned as a police state, featuring persecutions and autocratic rule. Nazi Germany emerged from a democratic process, yet gradually exerted more and more repressive controls over its people in the lead-up to World War II. In addition to the SS and the Gestapo, the Nazi police state used the judiciary to assert control over the population from the 1930s until the end of the war in 1945, the Republic of Cuba under president Fulgencio Batista was an authoritarian police state during his rule. Police influence continued following his overthrow during the Cuban Revolution in 1959 with the rise to power of Fidel Castro, in response to government proposals to enact new security measures to curb protests, government of AK Party has been accused of turning Turkey into a police state. Fictional police states have featured in a number of media ranging from novels to films to video games, george Orwells 1984 has been described as the definitive fictional treatment of a police state, which has also influenced contemporary usage of the term. Amnesty International,2005 — annual report on human rights violations Council for Secular Humanism article describing attributes of police states David Mery Suspicious behaviour on the tube. Whitehead to Speak to Senior Statesmen of Virginia on the Emerging American Police State and What 2014 Holds in Store for Our Freedoms

14.
Judaism
–
Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth-largest religion in the world, Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic, today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditional interpretation of Judaisms requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law, today, these still exist. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, the history of Judaism spans more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, the Hebrews and Israelites were already referred to as Jews in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title Children of Israel. Judaisms texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam, many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law. Jews are a group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14.3 million, Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism, the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Tanakh, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation, many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God, that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate Gods concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to one another, that is. These commandments are but two of a corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the substance of Judaism

15.
Jews
–
The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי‎ ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו‎, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס‎, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד‎ Yid, ייִדן‎, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group

16.
Christianity
–
Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin

17.
Devil
–
The Devil is, according to Christianity, the primary opponent of God. Islam identifies the Devil with all those who oppose Allah, some non-Abrahamic religions contain figures similar to the Devil, such as the Buddhist demon Mara and the Zoroastrian spirit Angra Mainyu. The Modern English word devil descends from the Middle English devel, from Old English dēofol, that in turn represents an early Germanic borrowing of Latin diabolus. This in turn was borrowed from Ancient Greek Greek, διάβολος, slanderer, from Greek, διαβάλλειν to slander, διά- across, through + βάλλειν to hurl, probably akin to the Sanskrit gurate he lifts up. In the New Testament, Satan occurs more than 30 times in passages alongside diábolos, in mainstream Judaism there is no concept of a devil as in mainstream Christianity or Islam. Texts make no direct link between the serpent that tempts Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis and the references to Satan are in Zechariah. For the Hasidim of the century, ha-satan was Baal Davar. In the Book of Wisdom, the devil is represented as the one who brought death into the world, a similar story is found in 1 Enoch, however, in that book, the leader of the Grigori is called Semjâzâ. In the apocryphal literature, Satan rules over a host of angels, mastema, who induced God to test Abraham through the sacrifice of Isaac, is identical with Satan in both name and nature. The Book of Enoch contains references to Sathariel, thought also to be Sataniel and Satanel, the similar spellings mirror that of his angelic brethren Michael, Raphael, Uriel and Gabriel, previous to his expulsion from Heaven. In mainstream Christianity the devil is usually referred to as Satan, some modern Christians consider the devil to be an angel who, along with one-third of the angelic host rebelled against God and has consequently been condemned to the Lake of Fire. He is described as hating all humanity, opposing God, spreading lies, other modern Christians consider the devil in the Bible to refer figuratively to human sin and temptation and to any immoral human system. Satan is often identified as the serpent who convinced Eve to eat the fruit, thus. He is also identified as the dragon in the Book of Revelation, beelzebub is originally the name of a Philistine god but is also used in the New Testament as a synonym for Satan. A corrupted version, Belzeboub, appears in The Divine Comedy, in Islam the Devil is referred to as Iblis or sometimes the Shaytan. Etymologically, Iblis means the desperate in Arabic, thus, the name Iblis can be seen as a sobriquet given to Shaitan after falling from Grace. The primary characteristic of the Devil, besides hubris, is that he has no other than the power to cast evil suggestions into the hearts of men and women. He was of the jinn and departed from the command of his Lord, then will you take him and his descendants as allies other than Me while they are enemies to you

18.
Satan
–
Satan is a figure appearing in the texts of the Abrahamic religions who brings evil and temptation, and is known as the deceiver who leads humanity astray. In the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, Satan is primarily an accuser and adversary, a malevolent entity, also called the devil. Although Satan is generally viewed as having negative characteristics, some groups have different beliefs. In Theistic Satanism, Satan is considered a deity who is either worshipped or revered, in LaVeyan Satanism, Satan is a symbol of virtuous characteristics and liberty. The original Hebrew term satan is a noun from a verb meaning primarily to obstruct, oppose, as it is found in Numbers 22,22,1 Samuel 29,4, ha-Satan is traditionally translated as the accuser or the adversary. The definite article ha- is used to show that this is a title bestowed on a being, thus, this being would be referred to as the satan. Ha-Satan with the definite article occurs 13 times in the Masoretic Text, in two books of the Hebrew Bible, Job ch. 1–2 and Zechariah 3, 1–2. 32 behold, I went out to thee,1 Samuel 29,4 The Philistines say, lest he be an adversary against us 2 Samuel 19,22 David says. 1 Kings 5,4 Solomon writes to Hiram, there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent, when the angels present themselves to God, Satan comes as well. God informs Satan about Jobs blameless, morally upright character, God therefore gives Satan permission to test Job. In the end, Job remains faithful and righteous, and there is the implication that Satan is shamed in his defeat, some scholars see contact with religious dualism in Babylon, and early Zoroastrianism in particular, as influencing Second Temple Judaism, and consequently early Christianity. Subsequent development of Satan as a deceiver has parallels with the spirit in Zoroastrianism, known as the Lie. In the Septuagint, the Hebrew ha-Satan in Job and Zechariah is translated by the Greek word diabolos, the Book of Enoch contains references to Satariel, thought also to be Sataniel and Satanel. The similar spellings mirror that of his angelic brethren Michael, Raphael, Uriel, the Second Book of Enoch, also called the Slavonic Book of Enoch, contains references to a Watcher called Satanael. It is a text of an uncertain date and unknown authorship. The text describes Satanael as being the prince of the Grigori who was cast out of heaven, a similar story is found in the book of 1 Enoch, however, in that book, the leader of the Grigori is called Semjâzâ. In the Book of Wisdom, the devil is represented as the being who brought death into the world, in the Book of Jubilees, Mastema induces God to test Abraham through the sacrifice of Isaac. He is identical to Satan in both name and nature, in Judaism, the term satan used since its earliest biblical contexts to refer to a human opponent

19.
Rabbi
–
In Judaism, a rabbi /ˈræbaɪ/ is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רַבִּי‎ rabi, meaning My Master, the word master רב‎ rav literally means great one. The basic form of the rabbi developed in the Pharisaic and Talmudic era, the first sage for whom the Mishnah uses the title of rabbi was Yohanan ben Zakkai, active in the early to mid first century CE. Within the various Jewish denominations there are different requirements for rabbinic ordination, for example, Orthodox Judaism does not ordain women as rabbis, but other movements have chosen to do so for halakhic reasons as well as ethical reasons. Although the usage rabbim many the majority, the multitude occurs for the assembly of the community in the Dead Sea scrolls there is no evidence to support an association with the later title Rabbi, the root is cognate to Arabic ربّ rabb, meaning lord. As a sign of respect, some great rabbis are simply called The Rav. The titles Rabban and Rabbi are first mentioned in the Mishnah, the term was first used for Rabban Gamaliel the elder, Rabban Simeon his son, and Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai, all of whom were patriarchs or presidents of the Sanhedrin. The title Rabbi occurs in the books of Matthew, Mark, and John in the New Testament, other variants are rəvī and, in Yiddish, rebbə. The word could be compared to the Syriac word ܪܒܝ rabi, in ancient Hebrew, rabbi was a proper term of address while speaking to a superior, in the second person, similar to a vocative case. While speaking about a superior, in the person one could say ha-rav or rabbo. Later, the term evolved into a title for members of the Patriarchate. Thus, the title gained an irregular form, רַבָּנִים‎ rabbanim. Rabbi as a title does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. All of the above personalities would have expected to be steeped in the wisdom of the Torah and the commandments. And honor is due only for Torah, as it is said, The wise shall inherit honor, and only Torah is truly good, as it is said, I have given you a good teaching, do not forsake My Torah. This was eventually encoded and codified within the Mishnah and Talmud and subsequent rabbinical scholarship, the title Rabbi was borne by the sages of ancient Israel, who were ordained by the Sanhedrin in accordance with the custom handed down by the elders. They were titled Ribbi and received authority to judge penal cases, Rab was the title of the Babylonian sages who taught in the Babylonian academies. After the suppression of the Patriarchate and Sanhedrin by Theodosius II in 425, a recognised scholar could be called Rab or Hacham, like the Babylonian sages

20.
Caiaphas
–
Joseph Caiaphas, known simply as Caiaphas in the New Testament, was the Jewish high priest who is said to have organized the plot to kill Jesus. Caiaphas is also said to have involved in the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus. The primary sources for Caiaphas life are the New Testament and the writings of Josephus, outside of his interactions with Jesus, little else is known about his tenure as high priest. The 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus is considered the most reliable source for Caiaphas. Josephus relates that Caiaphas became a high priest during a turbulent period and he also states that the proconsul Vitellius deposed his father in law, Annas. Josephus account is based on a source in which incumbents of the high priesthood were listed chronologically. According to Josephus, Caiaphas was appointed in AD18 by the Roman prefect who preceded Pontius Pilate, Joseph was the son-in-law of Annas the son of Seth. Annas was deposed, but had five sons who served as high priest after him and this ossuary appeared authentic and contained human remains. An Aramaic inscription on the side was thought to read Joseph son of Caiaphas, in June 2011, archaeologists from Bar-Ilan University and Tel Aviv University announced the recovery of a stolen ossuary, plundered from a tomb in the Valley of Elah. The Israel Antiquities Authority declared it authentic, and expressed regret that it could not be studied in situ and it is inscribed with the text, Miriam, daughter of Yeshua, son of Caiaphas, Priest of Ma’aziah from Beth ‘Imri. Based on it, Caiaphas can be assigned to the course of Ma’aziah. Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas, had been high-priest from A. D.6 to 15, Annas and Caiaphas may have sympathized with the Sadducees, a religious movement in Judaea that found most of its members among the wealthy Jewish elite. The comparatively long eighteen year tenure of Caiaphas suggests he had a working relationship with the Roman authorities. In the Gospel of John 11, the high priests call a gathering of the Sanhedrin in reaction to the raising of Lazarus, Caiaphas considers, with the Chief Priests and Pharisees, what to do about Jesus, whose influence was spreading. They worry that if they let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, in John 18, Jesus is brought before Annas, whose palace was closer. Annas questioned him regarding his disciples and teaching and sent him on to Caiaphas, Caiaphas makes a political calculation, suggesting that it would be better for one man to die than for the whole nation to be destroyed. In this Caiaphas is stating a rabbinic quotation, afterward, Jesus is taken to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate tells the priests to judge Jesus themselves, to which they respond they lack authority to do so, Pilate questions Jesus, after which he states, I find no basis for a charge against him

21.
Saint Peter
–
Saint Peter, also known as Simon Peter, Simeon, or Simōn pronunciation, according to the New Testament, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, leaders of the early Christian Great Church. Hippolytus of Rome, a 3rd-century theologian, gave him the title of Apostle of the Apostles, according to Catholic teaching, Peter was ordained by Jesus in the Rock of My Church dialogue in Matthew 16,18. He is traditionally counted as the first Bishop of Rome and by Eastern Christian tradition also as the first Patriarch of Antioch. The ancient Christian churches all venerate Peter as a saint and as founder of the Church of Antioch. The New Testament indicates that Peter was the son of John and was from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee or Gaulanitis and his brother Andrew was also an apostle. According to New Testament accounts, Peter was one of twelve apostles chosen by Jesus from his first disciples, originally a fisherman, he played a leadership role and was with Jesus during events witnessed by only a few apostles, such as the Transfiguration. According to the gospels, Peter confessed Jesus as the Messiah, was part of Jesuss inner circle, thrice denied Jesus and wept bitterly once he realised his deed, according to Christian tradition, Peter was crucified in Rome under Emperor Nero Augustus Caesar. It is traditionally held that he was crucified upside down at his own request, Tradition holds that he was crucified at the site of the Clementine Chapel. His remains are said to be contained in the underground Confessio of St. Peters Basilica. According to Catholic doctrine, the direct successor to Saint Peter is the incumbent pope. Two general epistles in the New Testament are ascribed to Peter, the Gospel of Mark was traditionally thought to show the influence of Peters preaching and eyewitness memories. Peters original name was Shimon or Simeon and he was later given the name Peter, New Testament Greek Πέτρος derived from πέτρα, which means rock. In the Latin translation of the Bible this became Petrus, a form of the feminine petra. Another version of this name is Aramaic, ‎‎, after his name in Hellenised Aramaic. The English, Dutch and German Peter, French Pierre, the Italian Pietro, the Spanish and Portuguese Pedro, the Syriac or Aramaic word for rock is kepa, which in Greek became Πέτρος, also meaning rock. He is also known as Simon Peter, Cephas and Kepha, both Cephas and Kepha also mean rock. In the New Testament, he is among the first of the disciples called during Jesus ministry, Peter became the first listed apostle ordained by Jesus in the early church. Peter was a fisherman in Bethsaida and he was named Simon, son of Jonah or John

22.
Mary Magdalene
–
Mary Magdalene, literally translated as Mary the Magdalene or Mary of Magdala, was a Jewish woman who, according to texts included in the New Testament, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. She is said to have witnessed Jesus crucifixion and resurrection, within the four Gospels she is named at least 12 times, more than most of the apostles. Based on texts of the early Christian era in the third century, the Gospel of Luke says seven demons had gone out of her, and the longer ending of Mark says Jesus had cast seven demons out of her. She is most prominent in the narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus, John 20 and Mark 16,9 specifically name her as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection. Ideas that go beyond the presentation of Mary Magdalene as a prominent representative of the women who followed Jesus have been put forward over the centuries. Mary Magdalene is considered to be a saint by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, other Protestant churches honor her as a heroine of the faith. The Eastern Orthodox churches also commemorate her on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, during the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, claims not found in any of the four canonical gospels. Mary was a common name in New Testament times, held by a number of women in the canonical Gospels. Mary Magdalene In addition, there were Mary, the mother of James, in the four Gospels, Mary Magdalene is nearly always distinguished from other women named Mary by adding the Magdalene to her name. This has been interpreted to mean the woman from Magdala, a town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Luke 8,2 says that she was actually called Magdalene, in Hebrew מגדל Migdal means tower, fortress, in Aramaic, Magdala means tower or elevated, great, magnificent. Talmudic passages speak of a Miriam hamegadela se’ar nasha, Miriam, the plaiter of womens hair, in the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene is also referred to simply as Mary at least twice. Gnostic writings use Mary, Mary Magdalene, or Magdalene, Mary Magdalenes name is mostly given as Μαρία, but in Matthew 28,1 as Μαριάμ, both of which are regarded as Greek forms of Miriam, the Hebrew name for Moses sister. The name had very popular during Jesus time due to its connections to the ruling Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties. Primary sources about Mary Magdalene come from the four canonical Gospels and these apocryphal sources are dated from the end of the 1st to the early 4th century, all written well after Saint Marys death. The canonical gospels are dated from the half of the 1st century. In addition, the Gregorian figure of the composite Magdalen developed an elaborate literary, Luke 8,2 and Mark 16,9 say Jesus cleansed her of seven demons. Some interpret this as meaning that he healed her from mental or physical illnesses and that she provided for the apostles suggests she was prosperous

23.
Judas Iscariot
–
Judas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve original disciples of Jesus Christ, and son of Simon Iscariot. He is known for the kiss and betrayal of Jesus to the Sanhedrin for thirty silver coins and his name is often used synonymously with betrayal or treason. Though there are varied accounts of his death, the traditional version sees him as having hanged himself following the betrayal and his place among the Twelve Apostles was later filled by Matthias. Despite his notorious role in the Gospel narratives, Judas remains a figure in Christian history. Gnostic texts – rejected by the mainstream Church as heretical – praise Judas for his role in triggering humanitys salvation, Judas is mentioned in the synoptic gospels, the Gospel of John, and at the beginning of Acts of the Apostles. Judas was a name in New Testament times. Judas Iscariot should not be confused with Jude Thomas, or with Saint Jude Thaddaeus who was one of the Twelve Apostles. Origen of Alexandria, in his Commentary on Johns Gospel, reflected on Judass interactions with the other apostles, Simon Peter spoke for the twelve, Lord, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life, but Jesus observed then that although Judas was one of the twelve whom he had chosen, marks Gospel states that the chief priests were looking for a way to arrest Jesus. They decided not to do so during the feast, since they were afraid people would riot, instead. According to Lukes account, Satan entered Judas at this time, according to the account in the Gospel of John, Judas carried the disciples money bag or box, but Johns Gospel makes no mention of the thirty pieces of silver as a fee for betrayal. However, in John 13, 27-30, when Judas left the gathering of Jesus and His disciples with betrayal in mind and they used it to buy the potters field. The Gospel account presents this as a fulfillment of prophecy, the Acts 1, 18-19 says that Judas used the money to buy a field, but fell headfirst, and burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. This field is called Akeldama or Field of Blood, the non-canonical Gospel of Judas says Judas had a vision of the disciples stoning and persecuting him. The existence of conflicting accounts of the death of Judas has caused problems for scholars who have them as threatening the reliability of Scripture. This problem was one of the points causing C. S. Lewis, for example, various attempts at harmonization have been suggested. Some have taken the descriptions as figurative, that the falling prostrate was Judas in anguish, and they argue that the author adds imaginative details such as the thirty pieces of silver, and the fact that Judas hangs himself, to an earlier tradition about Judass death. Even writers such as Jerome and John Calvin concluded that this was obviously an error

24.
Resurrection of Jesus
–
The resurrection of Jesus is the Christian religious belief that, after being put to death, Jesus rose again from the dead. It is the central tenet of Christian theology and part of the Nicene Creed, Paul the Apostle declared that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Paul further asserted And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, two days after Good Friday, the day of his crucifixion. Easters date corresponds roughly with Passover, the Jewish observance associated with the Exodus, in the New Testament all four gospels conclude with an extended narrative of Jesuss arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial, and his resurrection. In each gospel these five events in the life of Jesus are treated with more detail than any other portion of that gospels narrative. Scholars note that the reader receives an almost hour-by-hour account of what is happening, the death and resurrection of Jesus are treated as the climax of the story, the point to which everything else has been moving all the while. After his death by crucifixion, Jesus was placed in a new tomb which was discovered early Sunday morning to be empty, the New Testament does not include an account of the moment of resurrection. In the Eastern Church icons do not depict that moment, but show the myrrhbearers, the major resurrection appearances of Jesus in the canonical gospels are reported to have occurred after his death, burial and resurrection, but prior to his ascension. This was in accordance with Mosaic Law, which stated that a person hanged on a tree must not be allowed to remain there at night, but should be buried before sundown. All four gospels report that women were the ones to find the tomb of Jesus empty, according to Mark and Luke, the announcement of Jesus resurrection was first made to women. According to Mark and John, Jesus actually appeared first to Mary Magdalene alone, in the gospels, especially the synoptics, women play a central role as eyewitnesses at Jesus death, entombment, and in the discovery of the empty tomb. All three synoptics repeatedly make women the subject of verbs of seeing, clearly presenting them as eyewitnesses, after they found the empty tomb, the gospels indicate that Jesus made a series of appearances to the disciples. He was not immediately recognizable, according to Luke, E. P. Sanders concluded that although he could appear and disappear, he was not a ghost. Writing that Luke was very insistent about that, Sanders pointed out that the risen Lord could be touched and he first appeared to Mary Magdalene, but she did not recognize him at first. The first two disciples to whom he appeared, walked and talked with him for quite a while without knowing who he was and he was made known in the breaking of the bread. Beside the Sea of Galilee he encouraged Peter to serve his followers and his final appearance is reported as being forty days after the resurrection when he was carried up into heaven where he sits on the right hand of God

25.
Michael Tait
–
Michael DeWayne Tait is a contemporary Christian music artist. Michael Tait met Toby McKeehan in 1984 when he was in high school, Tait is the current lead singer of Newsboys, and one third of Christian rock group DC Talk. Tait also has had success in his career, founding a band called Tait in 1997. He toured as an act until 2007. He became lead singer of the Christian pop rock band Newsboys in 2009, aside from singing, Tait is also a self-taught guitar player. Tait also has a sister Lynda Randle, who is a Southern Gospel singer, Michael Tait met Toby McKeehan in 1984 while he was in high school in the Washington DC area, and together they began creating some music. Michael Tait and Toby McKeehan both met Kevin Max while attending Liberty University in the mid 1980s, together, all three formed the four-time Grammy winning band DC Talk and released 5 acclaimed studio albums. In 2000, the band announced a hiatus with the release of Intermission, the band has not toured together since 2001. The band also recorded a song entitled Lets Roll following the September 11,2001 attacks, after DC Talks hiatus was announced, Tait dedicated more time to his band Tait. Tait had partially formed this band around 1997, one of the original members was guitarist Pete Stewart, who is featured on the first album, but absent from the second one due to his departing the band to work on his own solo projects. In 2006, Tait announced that they were working on an album titled Loveology, though Michael is now touring as frontman for the Newsboys, he still has plans to release Loveology. In an interview with John Dibiase of Jesusfreakhideout. com, he stated that Loveology is still in the works, in the interview Michael said, Loveology is going to become something were going to be writing about very soon. I cant tell you now, but its a project with the boys and I and Ben Moody, an official statement was released on March 9,2009 that announced Michael Tait as the new lead singer of Newsboys. Coincidentally, Taits former group, DC Talk toured with Newsboys in the 1990s, on March 7,2009, Tait surprised the crowd by performing as Newsboys lead singer for the first time and announcing that he would be the bands new lead singer. In the official statement released on March 9, Tait said, For years dc Talk and Newsboys have been family, when I received the initial call from Newsboys to consider joining the band as lead singer, I was speechless. I immediately sought wise counsel and flooded the heavens with endless prayers for insight and vision, last weekend, I had the opportunity to perform my first show as Newsboys frontman to an audience of 12,000 people. I was completely wrapped in love and support by Newsboys fans, now I know this is exactly where I belong in this new and wonderful moment in my lifes history. This is a highlight of my career and for my 20+ years of walking with Jesus

26.
Audio Adrenaline
–
Audio Adrenaline is a Christian rock band that formed in the mid 1980s at Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky. The band gained recognition during the 1990s and received two Grammy Awards and multiple Dove Awards, Audio Adrenaline were regular performers at the annual Creation Festival, Spirit West Coast festival, Agape Music Festival, and Alive Festival. In 2006, the group disbanded due to lead singer Mark Stuarts spasmodic dysphonia, during this time, they released eight studio albums. After a six-year hiatus, the band reformed in 2012 with only bassist Will McGinnis returning from the original line-up, the new Audio Adrenaline was fronted by Kevin Max, formerly of DC Talk, as the new lead vocalist. This new line-up released a new album titled Kings & Queens in March 12,2013. In June 2014, Max stepped down as lead singer of the band, the first single of the new Audio Adrenaline was released in 2015 under the title Love Was Stronger. It was included in their studio album titled Sound of the Saints. The band was formed as A-180 in 1986 by Mark Stuart, Barry Blair, Will McGinniss, David Stuart, and Phil Vaughan, the band went on hiatus the following year when Mark traveled to Haiti for a semester. Upon Marks return to Kentucky, the band reformed with Ron Gibson on drums and they became a popular local band, booked by the school nearly every weekend and traveling as far west as Texas, north to Chicago, and south to Florida. The band did over 100 shows during time and recorded two independent releases under the name A-180. The first was You Turn in 1989 and Reapers Train in 1990, Reapers Train featured the original version of the song DC-10, which would later be included on the first Audio Adrenaline release. The bands big break would come upon meeting Bob Herdman, Herdman approached A-180 with two songs he had written, one of them called My God, and asked A-180 to record it. The song was described in a CCM Magazine article as a marriage of heavy metal. After the song was recorded at Landmark Recording Studio, in Ohio, as a result, Herdman also started to learn to play keyboards and guitar. The demo tape of My God was sent to radio stations, following this, the song caught the attention of Toby McKeehan, who brought it to the executives at ForeFront Records. The label decided to offer a deal to A-180 but had them change their name to Audio Adrenaline a name that Herdman had come up with previously. After signing their deal with Forefront, the band started writing and recording demo songs similar to My God for the first album, the band has described this period as one of adaptation and experimentation since ForeFront wanted a hip-hop act. As a result, Dave Stuart and Ron Gibson left the band, singer Mark Stuart said in an interview We had no idea what we were doing

27.
Rebecca St. James
–
Rebecca Jean Fink, known professionally as Rebecca Jean or Rebecca St. James is an Australian Christian pop rock singer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress. She began performing in Australia in the late 1980s and released her first full-length studio album in 1991 and she was signed to ForeFront Records in 1993 and released her major label debut the following year. St. James rose to fame in the late 1990s with her RIAA certified Gold albums God and Pray, the albums spawned multiple singles, including God, Pray, and Yes, I Believe in God. Staple songs such as Wait for Me, Reborn, Song of Love, I Thank You, Alive and she has sold two million albums since starting her career. St. James is also an author and actress. To date, she has released nine published books and starred in five films, a stage show. Her ninth book, What Is He Thinking. was released on 26 September 2011 and she has starred in the films Unidentified, Sarahs Choice, Rising Stars, The Frontier Boys, Suing the Devil, A Strange Brand of Happy, and Faith of Our Fathers. Rebecca St. James was born Rebecca Jean Smallbone on 26 July 1977 in Sydney, Australia to parents David and Helen Smallbone. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee, after her fathers job relocation, in 1991, where she was raised with a sister, Libby, and five brothers, Ben, Dan, Joel, Josh, and Luke. In 1990, at years of age, St. James opened shows for CCM artist Carman during his Australian tour. The following year she released an independent album, Refresh My Heart, soon after its release, her family moved to the United States where her father received a job offer. She signed with ForeFront Records and took her name at the labels request. In 1994 she released her major label debut titled Rebecca St. James and she also released an EP titled Rebecca St. James, Extended Play Remixes in 1995. On 25 June 1996, St. James released her second major album God, the album took her music in a new direction, focusing more on rock. It debuted to positive reviews and debuted at 200, and peaked at 168 on the Billboard 200 and it also charted at No.10 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and No.6 on Billboards Contemporary Christian chart. In 1997, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album for God, to promote the album, St. James released a devotion book titled 40 Days with God, A Devotional Journey in 1996. In 1997, St. James released the sequel to her devotional book, on 7 October of the same year, she released her first holiday album, simply titled Christmas. The album charted at No.12 on Billboards Top Heatseekers chart, on 20 October 1998 St. James released her third studio album, Pray, which debuted to mixed reviews

28.
Paul Wright (singer)
–
Paul Wright is an American musician originally from Eugene, Oregon. His debut album, Fly Away, was recorded in Oregon with Christopher Stevens and he graduated from Northwest Christian University with a degree in Communications after spending a semester studying at the Contemporary Music Center in Marthas Vineyard. His 2008 album is titled Diegos Diary and he is also on the tobyMacs albums Welcome to Diverse City and Renovating Diverse City. He was signed to Gotee Records, in October 2009, he led a songwriting workshop in Thailand. Wright also recently released singles which were custom songs he wrote for his fans. He offers his fans the opportunity to purchase an original song in which he writes, Wright is also the singer in Rootdown a rock band from Eugene, Oregon. Singer/songwriter and personal friend Mat Kearney co-wrote with Wright his parts as the narrator of the rock opera. Hero and his character was named Agent Hunter. He worked for I. C. O. N. as an undercover agent, Wright has been featured on CDs by tobyMac, LA Symphony, Falling Up, and Shawn McDonald. com Paul Wright Channel

29.
GRITS
–
GRITS, also known as G. R. I. T. S. is a Christian hip hop group from Nashville, Tennessee. Their name is an acronym, which stands for Grammatical Revolution In The Spirit, GRITS is made up of Stacey Coffee Jones and Teron Bonafide Carter, both of whom were DC Talk dancers. Their song Ooh Ahh has appeared on the MTV show My Super Sweet 16 and it is also used as the theme song of The Buried Life and on the soundtracks to The Fast and the Furious, Tokyo Drift and Big Mommas House 2. Their song Tennessee Bwoys was used on the television show Pimp My Ride. GRITS were also involved in. Hero The Rock Opera. GRITS recorded a remix of professional wrestler A. J, styles entrance music and performed it on the May 28,2009, episode of TNA Impact. The Christian hip hop duo began in 1995, with Teron David Bonafide Carter, GRITS is an acronym with a meaning of Grammatical Revolution in the Spirit. They both credited the inspiration for their rapping to hearing DC Talk, when the two first encountered each other in 1990. This is the reason the duo signed with Gotee Records, a label founded by former DC Talk member, tobyMac and they explained it was like graduating from school by leaving Gotee Records, and founding their own label. They were one of the first acts signed to Gotee Records, in 2014, Gotee Records announced that the GRITS song Ooh Ahh was RIAA Digital Gold Certified, having surpassed 500,000 downloads. They have appeared at Cornerstone Festival and Rock the Universe, in addition their song Bobbin Bouncin was added to the track list in the video-game Project Gotham Racing 4. With or Without You - In The Name Of Love, Artists United For Africa Wedding Celebration -. S and their first award was for a song about plagiarism. For this, they received the best Rap/Hip Hop Song award, the next year they took the same award for They All Fall Down, from Grammatical Revolution. In 2003 The Art Of Translation won the award for Rap/Hip Hop Album, and they also shared in the Special Event Album that year, for their contribution to. Hero The Rock Opera. They were nominated for Rap/Hip Hop Performer of the Year at the 2009 Visionary Awards Show, however, instead, the award went to the Christian rap duo Word of Mouth Grits Exclusive Interview November 2006 Revolution Art Website

30.
7ball
–
7ball is a discontinued Christian music magazine, first published in 1995, founded and created by Frank Chimento. They focused on rock, hip-hop, and other forms of Christian music. The magazine was published by the Royal Magazine Group alongside Release magazine. Its primary competition were magazines such as HM, True Tunes News, Diganote Publication, 7ball magazine was initially edited by Chris Well, former editor of the Christian rock magazine Syndicate, until 1996. At that time the magazine had a circulation of about 5,000, in 1997, the magazine was sold to VoxCorp. Well was promoted to editor in chief of the company, overseeing 7ball, Release, and others. Brown edited through the end of 1997, and was replaced by Cameron Strang. In 1998 Chimento resigned from the organization to head up KMG Records, in early 1999 7ball gained distribution to Family Christian Stores, the largest Christian bookstore chain. By 2000 the magazine had achieved a circulation of about 50,000, HM Magazine editor Doug Van Pelt would later report that during its tenure 7ball cost them some of their advertising base. Strang edited into 2000, then founded the Relevant Media Group and their parent company, VoxCorp, was taken to court in 2002 by Capital Across America for defaulting on over one million dollars in loans. The eventual judgment against the publisher was one of the largest litigation awards in the Nashville area in 2003 according to the Nashville Business Journal

31.
IMDb
–
In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database

32.
CCM Magazine
–
CCM Magazine is a twice monthly online magazine about contemporary Christian music, published by Salem Publishing, a division of Salem Communications. CCM was first published in July 1978, as a printed magazine and it has been owned by Salem since 1999. On January 16,2008, Salem announced that the April 2008 issue would be the final printed issue of the magazine, when the magazine was first published, it was called Contemporary Christian Music and covered that music genre. The name was shortened to CCM, which was still an acronym for Contemporary Christian Music. For a short time, the changed its name to Contemporary Christian Magazine. Then in May 2007, the meaning was changed to Christ. The editors explanation of the change can be found in the May 2007 issue of the magazine. In October 2006, CCM launched its own social networking site, smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Benny Hester, Steve Taylor, Phil Keaggy and Randy Stonehill. However, as the 1990s rolled around, the magazine focused more and more on artists that were played on Christian radio. On July 8,2009, Salem announced that CCM Magazine will be re-launched as an online publication, the online concept has been further developed and the online magazine is issued twice each month usually on the 1st and 15th of each month. CCM Magazine MyCCM Social Networking Analysis of the history and folding of CCM magazine John Styll & CCM John Styll Interview NAMM Oral History Library